News

PES welcomes new proposal on CCCTB, encourages Commission to step up fight on tax evasion

The European Commission has revealed its new proposal new common rules on corporate taxation. The proposed legislation would subject all EU tax-resident companies with annual turnover of more than €750m to a single set of rules for calculating their taxable profits.

PES President Sergei Stanishev said: "We very much welcome this initiative since it responds to our key priority of fighting tax evasion and tax avoidance. We want to underline the key role played by Commissioner Pierre Moscovici in stepping up the fight with corporate tax avoidance and profit shifting. Tax evasion remains one of the key challenges we are facing today in the EU and it is essential for us to fix all the existing loopholes, because every euro Europe loses due to rogue tax practices, is a Euro taken from our schools, our hospitals and our social protection systems."

The Commission’s proposal envisages that the new tax regime will be mandatory for the biggest multinational corporations. This is a significant progress since the previous proposal from 2011. The regulations of the Corporate Taxation Package will significantly prevent tax competition between large companies operating cross-borders and it will also decrease the companies’ costs of operation.

The Party of European Socialists calls for the implementation of the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) without any delay. This would allow for a simpler centralised system and therefore to a more effective enforcement against profit shifting.

We also urge for the proposed threshold of €750m to be lowered, so that all major companies operating in different countries are subject to this rules. We call on the Commission to present further proposals aiming at preventing companies and countries from running a tax 'race to the bottom'.